Kenya – Room to grow
As the Decade of Double Harvest picks up pace, we are seeing growth in every area of CfaN. It’s not only the number of evangelists that must increase if we are to reach 150 million salvations by the end of the decade. Behind every signed decision card, every salvation, there are countless moving parts – so many people, so many individual tasks that must all be done so that the Gospel may be preached.
With our eyes on the prize (as many salvations as possible!) we must think ahead and lay good foundations to bring the harvest in effectively. Last year, I told you about our new office in Kenya, run by Maina Mungai in close cooperation with our CfaN Europe office. In fact, it’s much more than an office, and that’s what I’d like to tell you about today.
Home base for Operation Decapolis Campaign equipment
I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that we are pressing forward with our Operation Decapolis strategy (conducting multiple Gospel Campaigns simultaneously to reach a whole nation with the gospel at one time!). We literally just finished 11 Gospel Campaigns in Zambia last week, 55 nights of the Gospel being preached with power. Hundreds of thousands made the decision to follow Jesus! Being able to go to towns and regions that aren’t accessible for our Flagship Campaigns is a crucial part of the Decade of Double Harvest strategy. And that comes with its own set of logistical challenges.
To make Operation Decapolis possible requires a fleet of trucks. Some are for transporting the necessary sound and lighting for the larger campaigns. And then there are our “Gospel Trucks”, simple and effective mobile stages with all the equipment built in. These can be driven anywhere we’re given access, allowing us to do a truly astonishing number of outreaches before any major campaign.
Our base in Kenya is the home of this Decapolis fleet. There, the trucks are stored between Gospel Campaigns, customized for our needs and constantly maintained.
Supporting evangelists in Sub-Saharan Africa
Kenya’s location in East Africa makes it ideal as a hub for reaching nations in East, Central and Southern Africa. In just this past year, evangelists affiliated with CfaN (Bootcamp, School of Evangelism and Fire Camp graduates) have conducted outreaches in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi and South Sudan. All of these countries are within relatively easy reach from our Kenyan base – though traveling in Africa is never “easy”!
The CfaN warehouse in Kenya plays another vital role, allowing us to store and distribute the vast quantities of follow-up literature that are given to new converts in every single outreach, big or small. To give you an idea of what that entails – we printed a million copies of “What’s Next?” (our follow-up booklets for children) at the end of 2022 for this region. You can imagine how much space and effort it takes to handle such huge quantities!
These booklets, along with “Now That You Are Saved” (follow-up booklets for adults) are a crucial part of every outreach and are used both to count decisions for Jesus accurately, and most importantly, to funnel new believers into local churches. Making these available to evangelists is just one way that CfaN helps and supports evangelists out in the mission field.
And when the Gospel Trucks are not on the road with a CfaN initiative like Operation Decapolis, they are still in use in multiple outreaches being conducted by Decade of Double Harvest evangelists.
Winning a generation for Jesus
Remember those one million booklets we printed in December? We have to print again very soon, because already – just in 2023 so far – multiple teams of evangelists have led more than 737,000 children to Jesus in this region alone! Literally every week now, there are numerous teams conducting youth campaigns in several countries at once. Leading these teams are Jako and Karin Hugo, CfaN veterans who work day and night to bring the youth of Africa into the Kingdom. That is no exaggeration! The Hugos spend their days preaching the Gospel to thousands of children, and at night, they train others to do the same.
While most of these enthusiastic preachers of the Gospel are in Africa with the help of their home churches and their own ministries, they nevertheless need additional support, encouragement and practical help to fulfil their callings. And this is where CfaN comes in, making our Gospel Trucks, follow-up booklets, experience and equipment available wherever possible. We see the Kenya base taking an ever-growing role as this influx of evangelists continues to increase.
Youth Campaigns in East Africa
Over 737,000 decisions in 2023 so far!
Joining forces for the harvest
You’ve heard me speak about “multiplication and collaboration”, and we’re certainly seeing the multiplication of evangelists happening. And as they head out into the harvest fields where the Lord leads them, we are seeing more and more collaboration, as they connect and work with other ministries. This is happening all over the world, and East Africa is no exception.
Peter Franz from Gospel Fire International, a ministry extremely active throughout this region, recently had this to say: “It was an enormous enrichment to have a team from CfaN with us. They conducted Youth Campaigns all over the area, then also actively participated in the evangelistic campaign with testimonies and preaching. It was great being with them. Proclaiming Jesus as Lord throughout the region is our mission. We believe that this place has changed a lot as a result of this mission. May God continue to work in hearts.”
We are all one body of Christ! What a joy it is for CfaN to come alongside other faithful harvest laborers, bringing logistical and technical help as well as trained and dedicated evangelists to shoulder the task together.
Here’s how you can pray…
Thank you, with all our hearts, for helping us to secure these premises and make them fit for purpose. But there is still a great deal of work to be done. Our greatest challenge at the moment is keeping pace with what the Lord is doing! Please pray with us that as this work expands, we will have the wisdom to prepare effectively, laying the best possible foundation. Please also pray for the financial provision needed to continue growing in step with the harvest, and especially that the Lord would bring committed monthly partners to join ranks with us.
We are not short of places crying, “Come!” Everywhere we look, we see opportunity. We are not short of people willing to go. Right now, teams of evangelists from all over the world are answering the call. What is needed are people who will answer the Lord of the Harvest and send preachers to bring the harvest in.
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? (Romans 10:14 NIV)
Together with you in the harvest,
Evangelist Daniel Kolenda
